Chap. 10-Landscapes of the Sacred, Laura Boleyn

Chapter 10 was an interesting chapter on placelessness and the function of imagination on understanding spirituality and landscape. After class discussion, reading and thought, placelessness can be described as not having a place or, not having a home or place of belonging. In Christian spirituality, placelessness can be described as what is ultimately real is not concrete, transcendent of the senses. Instead of concrete, it is abstract, which is something that cannot be touched or felt, for example a thought. As we learned in class, one example is the number two. The number two is a symbol or an abstraction. As an abstraction and a symbol, the number two cannot be found in nature.
Another are of the chapter is the place of imagination in spirituality and landscape. This area was also touched upon in Making Nature Sacred. It requires imagination, thought and care to find a place where the connection to God can be felt and where it seems that God has effected, or “stirred,” a given area. As the book says, “the call of a particular place evoking the spirit of abandonment.” The tranquility and spirit of a place can have the feeling of this spirit of abandonment to “call a life of abandonment to God.”